Crystal Lights
by Evantis
Summary: [Dedicated to Nut] Athrun did not expect much out of a trip to a mental hospital. It was just to kill time with Shinn. He did not expect to meet a patient with cloudy, schizophrenic amethyst eyes. [AsuKira]
1. Chapter 1: Shinn's Idea

Halo, people! Sorry about not updating my other stories, but I've got a serious writer's block, especially for Tragedy's Child! I won't mind if any of you have an idea of how to come along. 

Anyway, this story is dedicated to my friend, Nut! She's an AsuKira fan, so yep, this is an AsuKira fic.

Read, and enjoy!

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Chapter 1: Shinn's Idea 

It had all been Shinn's idea. Only Shinn would come up with things as ridiculous as that, and only Shinn would have the guts to actually carry them out, and also to get an assistant in the process. It seemed the younger boy had a knack for things like that – and he especially had a knack in convincing Athrun to do things he never thought of before.

Like for example, it never struck Athrun that he would ever want to visit a private mental hospital to help out with the administrative work.

But of course, Shinn came out with that absurd idea.

"Absolutely not," Athrun had said flatly, when Shinn pestered him that Friday afternoon, the last day before the start of the holidays. "Of all things, Shinn – not a mental hospital. Most certainly not. I'm not going to acquaint myself with deranged people."

"Have a heart, Athrun," Shinn said with a scowl.

Athrun sighed at that. He had to admit, his last statement was not quite exactly what he wanted to come out of his mouth. "Alright, not deranged. But still, Shinn – they mentally unstable. Don't you expect me to play Lego with them or take them to Ben & Jerry's.

"Most of the patients aren't allowed to leave the hospital," Shinn explained. "Athrun, they're really tragic people. Most of them have been abandoned by their families, and more than half are children who've lived there most of their lives. They're lonely, and since we've got so much time to burn during the holidays, why not do something…productive?"

Productive was not the word I would use, but Shinn was right. A mysterious ailment had spread like wildfire amongst the staff of Rosewood Garden High School. In truth, a couple of seniors had found it amusing to try and get rid of the teaching staff. They had slipped poisons – but not lethal ones, into the teachers' food and drink, so most of them had ended up falling sick. The boys, of course, were apprehended, but the teachers could not be saved. More than half were still stuck in hospital, and in light of this event, hardly any homework had been issued for the holidays.

Athrun contemplated. Helping at this hospital place might be useful, to some extent. "Will they pay us?"

"A reasonable amount, depending on our jobs," Shinn said. "But if we do administrative work, we'll get paid five dollars per hour! That's really good, isn't it? They must be desperate for help – I hear they're going through a rough patch – lots of their workers are leaving. The job's too creepy and scary for them, they say."

Athrun felt that if he were a worker in such a depressing place, he would leave after a day.

Shinn's hopeful crimson eyes stared at him so pathetically, that Athrun dropped his head on the table in defeat.

"Fine, Shinn. You win. Let's go to this…hospital place."

Crystal Lights Hospital for the Mentally Impaired Juvenile was a small building on the outskirts of the town, about a half hour's ride by bus from Rosewood State High School. Crystal Lights were a mere six-story graying building. It was rather pathetic, actually.

"This is the mental hospital you want me to spend my precious summer holidays at?" Athrun said, looking absolutely, terrifically incredulous.

"Yes, they've not been receiving enough funds lately," Shinn said sadly. "It seems most of their patients are 'lost cases', so not many people are willing to donate nowadays. But they'll be having a donation drive, and we'll be helping in that. Maybe we'll be able to raise more money."

Athrun did not think much of the donation drive. It was literally something he would think about _later_. He was the sort of person to worry about now, not later.

"So we're just here to help them with their administrative stuff?" Athrun asked.

"Uh huh," Shinn nodded. "We need to meet with the person in charge of administration. I believe her name was…"

Shinn seemed to think as hard as he could, as they proceeded into Crystal Lights. They came to the lobby, which was a rundown and seriously pathetic place. It was small, and with a tiny receptionist's desk, with a plain-looking, bespectacled lady in a cheap-looking dress. There was a filthy old couch, and a dusty coffee table nearby. Then there were the lifts, and outside, a small and weed-infested backyard.

_Not exactly a very charming place,_ Athrun thought. _Looks like some cutout from a child abuser's home._

Shinn immediately went to the receptionist's desk. The lady looked up at the boys, with her weary eyes. She looked rather tired and worn, with dark bags under her eyes. She must've been severely overworked. Her brownish hair was unkempt and dirty.

"And you are…?" she began.

"Shinn Asuka, and this is Athrun Zala," Shinn introduced us. "We're here to help with the administration."

The lady checked through some files, and smiled warmly at Shinn.

"You must be those kind-hearted boys," she shook her head. "Nobody thinks Crystal Lights is worth helping. Look at our lobby…you must have a bad impression of us already. But truly, it's not our outward appearance that counts. Most of our patients here need lots of support, but nowadays nobody is willing to give it. And the environment here isn't helping. And none of the other state hospitals are willing to help, and nobody is willing to adopt these children."

Athrun felt a twang of pity. But he brushed it away quickly.

The lady hurriedly changed the topic. "I must be depressing you. I'm sorry. My name is Murrue Ramias, and I know I look terrible. One of our patients has been unsettled by something the past few nights…there are so few of us, and we needed to go on shifts to watch him and make sure he didn't do anything."

_Hope they don't expect us to stay and help them control some freak…_ Athrun and Shinn followed Murrue to the lift, and they proceeded to the topmost floor.

Before they left, Murrue pushed them to a quiet corner of the dark and deserted corridor. The place was dusty and fungi were creeping up the whitewashed walls.

"This is the floor for the schizophrenic patients," Murrue explained. "They are the most easily spooked children, so please keep your voices down and try not to bang about. Our most problematic patient always resides on this level, so please…for all our sake's. None of us have been sleeping well lately, and we don't want to be disturbed again."

Shinn nodded. "We do our best, Ms Ramias."

"Just call me Murrue," the receptionist smiled. "We're not serious on formalities."

They tagged along after Murrue past a couple of worn, knobby doors that looked as if they were made of chipboard, what with all the peeling ends. They finally came to a small door at the end of the corridor, and Murrue pushed that open.

Athrun's jaw dropped to the ground, almost.

_I'm going to kill him! I'm going to kill Shinn – this is all his fault, it was his idea!_

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Anybody want to guess why Athrun has gone ballistic in his brains?

Lol, this story was made specially for Nut, so the number of reviews don't really matter for me, however I don't mind if you review anyway!

Thanks!

Don't forget to review, ne?


	2. Chapter 2: Formless Scream

Here!! I updated already, stupid Nut. Jeez. You Kira-freak.

Anyway, guys – here's Chapter 2!!

Hope you enjoy it, and don't forget to R & R!

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Chapter 2: Formless Scream

It was the biggest clutter and mess of papers Athrun Zala had ever seen in his entire life. It looked like some sort of mega dumpster, that only had papers. Papers were practically cluttered all over the floor, pooling out of bins and buckets, and bursting out of cupboards. Files were blasted and thrown haywire all over the place, and the floor was strewn with random papers.

"This is the worst room in the place," Murrue said. "About half a month ago, one of our autistic patients went into a fit and managed to get here. He upturned everything. Nobody has been willing to clean this up. We only pray hard that you will help. This room contains the life histories of half the patients. Everything is in a jumble, and it's very hard to sort out. But if you separate them according to their illnesses, and slowly classify them later, it will be easier then looking for the papers of each separate child."

"It's like searching for a pin in a haystack," Athrun could not stop himself from commenting.

"I'm sorry," Murrue looked apologetic. "Apparently this isn't what you barg1ained for. You can always stop – even I personally myself don't really have the patience and time to sort this lot out. You may leave anytime you wish, and we'll still pay you for the hours you've spent here."

"Thanks, Murrue," Shinn said. "But we really have nothing to do back home. We'll be really ready to help. You can count on us."

_Count on _you_, maybe,_ Athrun thought sourly. _I have no part in this._

"Well then, lunch starts at one-forty for the staff," Murrue said. "You can come down anytime you like. If you need cookies or water or anything of that sort, you can come look for me, too. And do remember not to bang about, please."

"Yes, Murrue," Shinn said earnestly. Once she left, the younger boy spun on Athrun like a missile. "This is going to be so fun! Let's start by classifying them by illnesses."

Athrun rolled his eyes at Shinn's crazy enthusiasm.

"Have fun, Shinn," Athrun said, pushing papers off a chair and comfortably settling himself down. "I'll just watch. And I won't forget to take pictures, too. So don't worry." He took out his cell phone.

Shinn dragged him off the chair, as expected.

"Athrun, you agreed!" he whined. "You agreed to come and help, so that's what you're going to do, right?"

"Forget it, Shinn – look at this place – it's worse than my bedroom," Athrun said languidly, looking through his text messages. "We could use a whole century and still not be able to finish cleaning."

"If we work together, we can finish it before the end of the holidays!" Shinn said pointedly. "So come _on_."

Athrun relented, closing his cell phone and slipping it back into his pocket.

Shinn found a list from the table, showing all the classifications. First of all there were the schizophrenics, those on the topmost floor. Then the autistic children were below the schizophrenics. After that were the children with the Down syndrome. And then the elective mutes, and finally, the hyperactive children.

"The list for schizophrenics is right here," Shinn said, managing to strangle a sheet of paper out from under a dog-eared stack. "Wow…thirteen of them!"

_What an unlucky number – thirteen, _Athrun thought, running his eyes down the list.

There were seventeen autistic children, twenty-one with the Down syndrome and eleven hyperactive children.

_Gathering of the mentally unstable, _Athrun thought to himself. He glanced at Shinn, who was already attacking a stack of papers.

"Let's see…" the younger boy said thoughtfully. "Ah…childhood schizophrenia. Hey, listen, Athrun – part the schizophrenics here," he dumped the single slip of paper in front of the door and began to point to various spots around the door. "The autistic ones here, the Down syndrome ones here and then the hyperactive ones there. Okay?"

The area around the door was the only placed not thoroughly bombarded with sheets. Shinn simply pushed a small splat of papers aside, and then settled down to sort several sheets out.

Athrun figured it was time _he_ got to work. He knelt down by the cupboard, and began to pick up papers.

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Through the first hour of their day there, Athrun found himself almost locked and corner in a world he never knew. A world where mental patients lived in.

He came across a boy called Auel Neider, who was schizophrenic, always hallucinating his dead mother. He came across Stella Loussier, with Down syndrome – providing her a strange inability to understand things. There was also the hyperactive Sting Oakley, who occasionally tried to kill people. A few names he actually bothered to remember. There were so many children that were ill in such a special way.

By lunch, Athrun was dead-tired, lethargic and his shoulders ached like hell. Shinn was still bouncing around happily, but the older boy had to admit, the room was much cleaner. They had stacked the unclassified papers neatly, so it'd be easier to take them later. Then Murrue brought out the classified papers to another storage room so they wouldn't get mixed up. Then, Murrue took them to the cafeteria for lunch.

"Oh, thank you both so much," Murrue said, her voice sounded relieved. "It's really quite a difference in the room. It was such a disaster."

"Yeah, it looked as if a cyclone had hit it," Shinn joked. "But it was fun all the same."

The cafeteria was tiny. There were only three stalls – a stall that sold rice, another that sold ramen, and the last sold drinks. Old, lumbering elderly couples worked the stalls.

"Well, then – if you wish to stop for the day, it's fine," Murrue said brightly. "You've done such a great deal already."

"No, it's alright – we can continue," Shinn said. "It's really all right, Murrue. We aren't tired yet."

So after lunch, the boys went back to the room, and began to sort the papers out again. It was a tiring job, but Athrun was altogether quite satisfied by the end of the day.

The room looked very much different. Only papers kept flooding out of the cupboards, but otherwise everywhere else looked fine. Many stacks of papers had been taken to the other storage room already.

"Looks perfect!" Shinn grinned. "We'll be back here again tomorrow – and do an even greater job!"

"I'm sure," Athrun said dryly. "This was your idea, Shinn. And I'm starting to hate you for it." He rubbed his swollen and aching muscle shoulders and collapsed on the floor. "You go on ahead, I'll catch up with you later. I bet you have lots of things to tell Murrue – you always do. Instead of making me hear you ramble, let me rest."

Shinn muttered something about 'the ungratefulness of _some_ people', and left. Athrun looked around the dim room. The orange glow of sunset was pouring in, creating quite a peaceful and gentle ambience. Athrun looked to his right, and ran his eyes over the papers.

And then, a flash of amethyst grabbed his attention like a fish line grabbing its catch.

Athrun jerked out of his resting place and crawled quickly to the source of amethyst. He picked up a sheet of paper, and _stared_.

A boy relatively the same age of him looked back, deep, cloudy amethyst eyes filled with nothing that could portray his personality, or his soul. He had too-pale skin, and his features looked worn and tired. Nonetheless, he caught Athrun's attention. It was impossible to tear his eyes away from the boy in the picture.

Athrun looked at the name.

_Name: Kira Yamato_

_Age: 16_

_Date of Birth: Unknown_

_Country of Birth: Unknown_

_Nationality: Unknown_

_Race: Unknown_

_Mental Illness: Childhood Schizophrenia_

_Current Hospital: Crystal Lights for the Mentally Impaired Juvenile_

Athrun kept quiet, while reading. It was difficult to say what he made of the boy in the picture.

_Kira._

He placed the sheet of paper carefully on top of the schizophrenic patients' stack, and left the room, with a feel of haunting eyes staring into his back.

_It's just a picture._

_But then…_ Athrun saw Shinn talking happily to Murrue at the receptionist's desk. _But then, Kira really is staying here, right?_

It was a rather creepy and disturbing feeling to know that somebody was here, but yet not know where exactly he was.

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Over the next three days, Shinn and Athrun worked diligently at Crystal Lights. It was a backbreaking job – but still the results were fruitful. The once disgustingly messy storage room had turned beautifully clean. Now the boys did nothing but pray the mentally retarded patient did not come crashing in again. Murrue assured them that they would lock the room with a 10kg lock to protect the boys' work.

Throughout the period of cleaning, Athrun did nothing but hunt for papers belonging to Kira Yamato. The existence of the boy and the desire to learn more about him provided new inspiring determination to Athrun. Shinn himself was baffled by his friend's sudden lack of reluctance to do the job well. In fact, Athrun even wanted to stay overtime.

Athrun did not tell Shinn anything about Kira. And luckily enough, Shinn never paid any attention to the things he was classifying – he only looked at the illness, and threw the sheet into one of the five piles.

Occasionally, Athrun did find one or two sheets on Kira Yamato. But most of them were just historical rubbish – a long list of the number of hospitals Kira had been to, and also the names of the counselors and psychiatrists who had been employed to see to him from before. But nothing truly worth seeing.

Finally, when they finished with rearranging the papers into the five different stacks, they started about on classifying each child personally.

Athrun had a great interest in this Kira boy. Everything about the other intrigued him. The deep, indescribable amethyst eyes, the strange but fitting straight brown hair, the pale skin – everything. He had a desire to meet the other in person. It was a very strange feeling.

Kira was somewhere.

Athrun just didn't know where.

Could he ask Murrue about it? Not in front of Shinn, surely not. Shinn was his friend, sure – but could he be trusted with the fact that Athrun had just suddenly felt attraction to a mentally unstable boy? What would Shinn say about that?

Murrue was an option. But Murrue might tell Shinn. Maybe it was best he looked for Kira himself?

On the fourth day, Athrun found himself peacefully alone at Crystal Lights. Shinn had gone on a camping trip with some of his friends that Athrun did not socialize himself with. Needless to say, he was invited, but he turned down the offer. This was the perfect time to do some extra work behind Shinn's back.

He managed to amass himself ten papers regarding Kira. Two of them just wrote about his medical history – the number of counselors and doctors he'd been treated by. Another two described his features, his illness, his birthday and such. Three were dedicated to the medication he had taken before. One was about nothing except his current medications. The final two were about the hospitals he'd been to. Athrun scanned the page with a critical eye. It was a truly long list of hospitals, and at the very end of it, almost crammed upwards, was Crystal Lights.

Athrun's eyes widened when he saw something. Somebody had scribbled a scrawny, almost illegible note in blue ink next to Crystal Lights' address.

_**F-90X**_

It was a room name! 'F' symbolized the sixth floor. 90X was the room number. Could it be…? Kira Yamato was in room F-90X? Could it be possible, that he was there, even now? Could Athrun find him, meet him finally – face-to-face?

Athrun scrambled up to his feet, forgetting the papers on the floor. Just his luck! It was lunch hour – most of the staff would be out, except a couple in the staff room – the administrative guys.

Athrun walked out of the storage room, and stared at the empty, desolate corridor. He walked past many doors.

_F-80C._

_F-81D_

_F…_

Athrun went past by the elevators, and entered another desolate corridor. He breathed shallowly. He had never properly explored this corridor before, as there was no need to come around here. But, still…this side of the building irked him.

Awoken with fresh determination, Athrun persisted down the corridor.

_Kira._

He found himself at the end of the long hallway, and staring at the door number,

F-90X 

Bracing himself, Athrun placed a hand on the cold doorknob.

Gathering whatever strength and courage he had left, he twisted the doorknob and slowly opened it.

"What are _you_ doing here?"

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How was it, how was it?

I know it's a rather dumb, boring chapter, but it'll get interesting real soon, I promise, 'kays?

Anyway, till next time!


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